- Build Rating
I’ve been on a utility pedal kick lately and I’m also a sucker for vintage, “legendary” pedals, so it was only a matter of time before this build reached the top of my pile. But I felt I needed another reason to justify building it right now (the wife is sick of all the time I’ve been spending on the bench lol).
My primary amp is an old Carvin MTS3200 Master
Tube series. If you’re unfamiliar with this amp, it has a glorious clean channel that is very, very Fender-ish (It’s dirt channel sound is rubbish, tailor made for 80’s hair metal, but I never touch it). That all said, with strats and teles and a “fendery” sounding amp, I don’t really need a treble booster.
However…I do have a fantastic little 4watt Vox AC4TV that could definitely use some treble, so I had my excuse
Had an AC128 leftover from Twin Face build that fit the bill and was was able to bias it almost exactly at 7v. It sounded fantastic…
Until I accidentally dropped it on the floor and nocked the transistor loose! The real interesting thing when fixing this is when biasing after re-socketing the transistor, I was only able to get around 7 to 8v, no matter where I set the trimmer. Luckily, 7 was what I was looking for. But when I originally biased it before I dropped it, I was able sweep through a wide range of voltage. Does anyone know what might have caused this to occur?
I didn’t think about the fact the rotary would need a different sized knob, so all I had was this pink one that got for another project that didn’t work out.
Which leads to another reason I wanted to post this build report: to warn people to stay away from the Ball Silver finish from Tayda (see pic). I have had success hand drilling (both traditional bits and step) a myriad of finishes from Tayda and have had no issues until this one…paint chips flying everywhere with scratches seeming to appear out of nowhere. As you can see I had to get creative with a pot nut under the LED bezel to cover up some chipping.
Anyway, another easy and fast build that I highly recommend. If you’re a single coil out of a Princeton kind of guy, you probably don’t “need” this pedal. That being said, it’s a legend for a reason. Build one. Too quick and easy not too and you won’t regret having it in your arsenal.
My primary amp is an old Carvin MTS3200 Master
Tube series. If you’re unfamiliar with this amp, it has a glorious clean channel that is very, very Fender-ish (It’s dirt channel sound is rubbish, tailor made for 80’s hair metal, but I never touch it). That all said, with strats and teles and a “fendery” sounding amp, I don’t really need a treble booster.
However…I do have a fantastic little 4watt Vox AC4TV that could definitely use some treble, so I had my excuse
Had an AC128 leftover from Twin Face build that fit the bill and was was able to bias it almost exactly at 7v. It sounded fantastic…
Until I accidentally dropped it on the floor and nocked the transistor loose! The real interesting thing when fixing this is when biasing after re-socketing the transistor, I was only able to get around 7 to 8v, no matter where I set the trimmer. Luckily, 7 was what I was looking for. But when I originally biased it before I dropped it, I was able sweep through a wide range of voltage. Does anyone know what might have caused this to occur?
I didn’t think about the fact the rotary would need a different sized knob, so all I had was this pink one that got for another project that didn’t work out.
Which leads to another reason I wanted to post this build report: to warn people to stay away from the Ball Silver finish from Tayda (see pic). I have had success hand drilling (both traditional bits and step) a myriad of finishes from Tayda and have had no issues until this one…paint chips flying everywhere with scratches seeming to appear out of nowhere. As you can see I had to get creative with a pot nut under the LED bezel to cover up some chipping.
Anyway, another easy and fast build that I highly recommend. If you’re a single coil out of a Princeton kind of guy, you probably don’t “need” this pedal. That being said, it’s a legend for a reason. Build one. Too quick and easy not too and you won’t regret having it in your arsenal.
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